MP3 Playback buggered

[(Shovel)]

Right, fresh install of XP Home. Fully patched.

Installed WinAmp, play music. However, I regularly get "skipping" - a strange almost tearing noise at various points on the track. I have no idea why.

This is WinAmp 2.91, and it happens in Media Player 9 as well.

The spec is:
XP Home
Athlon 1.33
768MB RAM
2x Hard drive (via Highpoint Raid controller)
Terratec DMX XFire Soundcard.

I have no idea what is wrong with it On every previous installation it's been absolutely fine.

 

[(Shovel)]

Also: It seems to happen specifically when I do something else in Windows. E.g. Right now, as I type in a static window, it's fine. But If I task-switch to Outlook and click on an email it will do it.

It's really really odd and I don't understand it

I'm going to try reinstalling the sound card drivers, but I don't know whether there is anything that could interfere with it?

 

[Jonty]

Hello

Just a flying visit Does your motherboard have an integrated sound solution? If so, try disabling it in the control panel, as conflicts can sometimes occur between this and the dedicated solution you have.

Kind Regards

 

[(Shovel)]

I think I found it.

When I reinstalled I got myself two new ATA cables and plugged the hard drives into the RAID controller (every device now its own dedicated channel - mmmm). However, this is the first time I've ever had the RAID controller enabled in 18 months of owning this board.

A quick search for "IRQ Sharing" on Usenet shows up, suprise, that PCI5 (the soundcard) and the RAID controller share an IRQ.

*Goes off to move his sound card to PCI4*

 

[Testin da Cable]

*watch myriad other problems unfold*





not really hehe. I hope the move solves it

 

[(Shovel)]

*Mental note: Read Usenet properly*

PCI4 had my network card in it, so I stuck it in PCI6 instead - thinking that PCI3 and 6 share.

No... 4 and 6 share...

So, I've booted up and I have the same problem - but I have not the faintest clue about the source of the problem.

I'm off to move it again - PCI2 and 3 are both empty and are DEFINATELY sharing with each other, so with a bit of luck, that will do it... hopefully.

 

[nath]

Oh man, I had so many problems with irq sharing on different pci slots. What fun!

 

[(Shovel)]

Arrrgh! OK - It's in an unshared slot and I'm getting the same problem still. Maybe marginally less.. it's really hard to tell. The problem is, it's still happening

An tips? Or shall I just throw it away and reinstall again?

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
*watch myriad other problems unfold*

can you check it in a different computer?

 

[(Shovel)]

Sadly not.

I've now installed VIA 4-1s, which has the PCI bus driver in it, we'll see what happens.

Failing that, I do have a Soundblaster Live Value lying around here, I could do a swap and see what happens.

 

[(Shovel)]

Well, just to expand a little:

It's not just MP3. It happens in all sound files (so it seems, Windows start up sound for instance)

Having just swapped the card for the old Soundblaster Live! card, the same problem remains. Time to go hunting on Usenet again....

 

[kameleon]

ACPI is a bitch

 

[(Shovel)]

Is that likely the problem?

I'm following a RAID controller related path at the moment. Many on Usenet have reported similar problems, and there are a few solutions floating about:

Firstly, updating my Highpoint RAID BIOS to a version 2.3 - which, due to the Abit KT7a being discontinued cannot be done through a new Abit BIOS. (On board RAID controllers must be patched through a Motherboard BIOS patch). This leaves me with the prospect of trying to hack together my own BIOS. Ha! Unless I can find some "sucess rate" statistics for how likely I am to ruin my motherboard, I think I'll step back from that.

Others are talking about driver issues, someone said they fixed the problem using an older driver (Highpoint drivers are matched closely to the BIOS revision). Now, the default Signed XP driver has the problem, the version of the driver that matches my BIOS has the problem. I'm going to try the version before - the user in question quotes version 1.0.something. I will give it a shot and see what happens...

Kameleon: The disable ACPI I have to reinstall yes? Do I lose anything beneficial if I switch it off?

 

[(Shovel)]

Right then: Older drivers don't appear to cut it.

I'm heading for two options here yes? Try reinstalling without using ACPI? (After considering what will/wont happen when I do).

Or, to strip it out again and stop using the RAID controller ports - since the RAID BIOS does appear to be attracting Usenet attention. I'm not risking the entire mobo for trying a customised BIOS version.

Could someone offer some advice on the setup of the various drives if I choose to abandon the RAID channels. I did it to try and get a performance boost, and I assume that if it worked then I really would get a worthwhile boost on things like CD ripping and (especially) copying? Previously I had the two hard drives on one Channel and the two Disk drives (DVD/CDRW) on the other. Is this the best way to do it?

I'm starting to get tired and maybe I will just put it back

I think "RAID on motherboard is not worth it, get a separate card that you can properly update the BIOS for" may be the moral to anyone who ever plans to use a RAID controller properly.

 

[kameleon]

Its basically a problem because if you have all the hardware in the machine at one and install with the PNP OS option in bios still turned on when you reinstall it can cause some glitches, usually with netwok cards or agp gfx cards and the soundcard.

You could try uninstalling the soundcard drivers completely then removing the card, rebooting the machine and then putting the card back in.

Edit: ACPI is a very useful feature, unfortunately not all devices support it fully having the onboard raid isn't a problem and is very useful at freeing up ide slots for extra atapi drives.
If you feel you want to do away with the raid, bear in mind that if you have a cd drive on the same ide channel as you hdd then you wont get the full performance out of your hdd.

If you decide to go for a full reinstall, try inserting the cards one at a time , starting with (duh) the gfx card, (installing the via 4 in one drivers before you install any of the pci cards.

 

[nath]

I presume there's no problem whatsoever with playing CD Audio, right?

 

[(Shovel)]

I'll have a check of that in a sec Nath - thanks for reminding me.


However, as FUCKING TYPICAL as this is, it's working... and I don't understand why. Cause when I logged in and started playing it wasn't behaving at all. But, suddenly, without warning, it started to work. I have no idea what is going on, but for the time being I'm just going to sit tight and relax on it for a bit.